How does your school/district currently support and or encourage collaboration between teachers? I think collaboration is encouraged but not supported. For example, in French there are only two of us. We need time to collaborate, but until this year, we have never had the same prep periods. Students at MHS start off their career in the academy, where teachers do collaborate. The only other efforts the makes to support collaboration is during content meetings. I would love to have some kind of online forum where we were grouped interdiscipinarily so that we could discuss and collaborate. I think this course is an excellent way to begin that.
How much do you seek to collaborate with teachers and how do you accomplish this? During content meetings and after school, I think we try to collaborate as much as possible, just by seeking out each others' opinions However, during school it is challenging as everyone is free at different times and we don't always even have the same lunch. If we were able to collaborate through 21st century technology, I think it would be much easier and it would make it a lot of fun too. I think it is important not only to collaborate with teachers in our own school, but also with teachers in the same content area, in other schools, especially in French, where there are only two of us. We recently had this opportunity at AP training and it was great!
To what extent do you think collaboration is of growing importance for teachers seeking to implement a 21st century classroom? I think it is very important - some of these resources are difficult to find. They are easiest to find when other teachers tell you about them.
In what ways, if any, do you see the thoughts in this article applying to student conversation? I think teacher collaboration and student collaboration are similar. Similarly to teachers during the school day, there is just not enough classroom time for students to collaborate effectively. By using online forums, blogs, other forms of communication, it becomes easier to collaborate.
session 8.3
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew." Abraham Lincoln
Visit the discussion page (subject: session 8.3) to see my thoughts on this quote and on the video
Session 8
session 8.1 - Wallwisher
session 8.2
Creating a 21st century learning community for teacherssession 8.3
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew." Abraham Lincoln
Visit the discussion page (subject: session 8.3) to see my thoughts on this quote and on the video